“Why do people have to be this lonely? H. Murakami

“Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it”. – What I Talk about When I Talk about Running (2009)

Everyone must have one thing that they can excel at. It’s just a matter of drawing it out, isn’t it? But school doesn’t know how to draw it out. It crushes the gift. It’s no wonder most people never get to what they want to be. They just get ground down – Haruki Murakami – Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Haruki Murakami (born 12 January 1949) is a popular contemporary Japanese writer.

Murakami began writing fiction when he was 29. “Before that, I didn’t write anything. I was just one of those ordinary people. I was running a jazz club, and I didn’t create anything at all.”

He was inspired to write his first novel, Hear the Wind Sing (1979), while watching a baseball game

“But who can say what’s best? That’s why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a life time, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives.” – Norwegian Wood

Murakami’s fiction, often criticized by Japan’s literary establishment, is humorous and surreal, focusing on themes of alienation and loneliness

People’s memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive. Whether those memories have any actual importance or not, it doesn’t matter as far the maintenance of life is concerned. They are all just fuel. “- After Dark

“Why do people have to be this lonely? What’s the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Why? Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?” – Sputnik Sweetheart

Murakami’s first novel Hear the Wind Sing (Kaze no uta wo kike) was adapted by Japanese director Kazuki Omori. The film was released in 1981

Two stories from Murakami’s book after the quake—”Honey Pie” and “Superfrog Saves Tokyo”—have been adapted for the stage and directed by Frank Galati

A Wild Sheep Chase: “The first book where I could feel a kind of sensation, the joy of telling a story. When you read a good story, you just keep reading. When I write a good story, I just keep writing.”

“I sometimes think that people’s hearts are like deep wells. Nobody knows what’s at the bottom. All you can do is guess from what comes floating to the surface every once in a while.” – Man-Eating Cats